This application claims the priority of Korean Patent Application No. 10-2004-0029182, filed on Apr. 27, 2004, in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a high voltage gate driver integrated circuit, and more particularly, to a high voltage gate driver integrated circuit including a high voltage junction capacitor and a high voltage LDMOS transistor.
2. Description of Related Art
FIG. 1 is a layout view showing a conventional high voltage gate driver integrated circuit.
In general, the conventional high voltage gate driver integrated circuit 100 comprises a low voltage region 110 and a high voltage region 120 surrounded by the low voltage region 110. A junction termination region 131 is disposed between the low and high voltage regions 110 and 120. An n type lateral double-diffused MOS (LDMOS) transistor 132 is disposed in the low voltage region 110. A p type high voltage MOS transistor 133 is disposed in the high voltage region 120. The signal transmission from the low voltage region 110 to the high voltage region 120 is made by the junction termination region 131 and the n type LDMOS transistor 132. On the contrary, the signal transmission from the high voltage region 120 to the low voltage region 110 is made by the junction termination region 131 and the p type MOS transistor 133. The n type LDMOS transistor 132 and the p type MOS transistor 133 are elements for shifting a level from high to low voltage, and vice versa.
The junction termination region 131 provides an electrical isolation between the low voltage region 110 and the high voltage region 120. The junction termination region 131 must have enough width to ensure high reliability of the high voltage gate driver integrated circuit 100. In particular, the junction termination region 131 must have a relatively large width in order to ensure a breakdown voltage of about 600V or more and prevent malfunction of the high voltage gate driver integrated circuit 100 due to a punch-through effect resulting from formation of a depletion region. The n type LDMOS transistor 132 and the p type MOS transistor 133 are disposed in the low voltage region 110 and the high voltage region 120, respectively, and the junction termination region 131 having a relatively large width is disposed between the low voltage region 110 and the high voltage region 120. Therefore, the conventional high voltage gate driver integrated circuit 100 has a problem in that its size is relatively large. In addition, in a case where a high voltage junction capacitor is needed, the high voltage junction capacitor, as an additional element, is electrically connected to the conventional high voltage gate driver integrated circuit 100 by means of wiring lines.